“I was really surprised to get pole,” Hamilton said afterward. “I was expecting Sebastian to get it and it didn’t even feel that great a lap. We’ve brought some upgrades this weekend and the guys have been working incredibly hard.”

Vettel said, “There wasn’t much missing, so Lewis did a good job, put a strong lap in.

“I was pretty happy with both laps. I was losing out a little in the middle sector; maybe I wasn’t aggressive enough. But in the end I was happy with my lap but it was not quick enough.”

There was only misfortune for Vettel’s team-mate, Mark Webber, whose KERS electric boost system failed in Q2. He failed to set a lap time in Q3.